Hard to Reach: A Failure of Research, Not People.

"Hard to reach" gets treated as a fact about disabled people, when the real story is a research industry that never built the relationships needed to include them properly.

Christine Hemphill joins Leah and Jenny Garrett to unpick that phrase and the industry built around it. She talks through her move out of traditional design roles into disability-inclusive research, why touchscreens and voice interfaces both started as disability-led design before anyone called them mainstream, and why the choice between "innovative" and "inclusive" was never a real one. The conversation also covers positionality, the bias every designer carries into a room without noticing, and what it takes to build genuine empathy with the people research is meant to serve.

AI for Equity is hosted by Leah Garrett and Jenny Garrett OBE.